Jeff Koons’s Gazing Ball sculpture at centre of legal tussle between art dealers
In new court filings, Fabrizio Moretti reveals the work he says David Zwirner has failed to deliver—and is now seeking $6m in damages
(via The Art Newspaper)
Lawyers for Blue Art Limited, the London-based company owned by the Italian Renaissance dealer Fabrizio Moretti, filed an amended complaint Wednesday night (17 August) against the New York art dealer David Zwirner and his gallery, which Moretti says failed to deliver a work of art he bought for $2m. The new complaint comes after Zwirner’s motion to dismiss named the previously anonymous purchaser and called the lawsuit “a case of buyer’s remorse”. In response, Moretti’s recent court filings reveal the work at the heart of the case—Jeff Koons’s Gazing Ball (Centaur and Lapith Maiden) (2013), from the gallery’s show that year. And while he previously asked for the original purchase price for the work plus fees, Moretti’s updated suit seeks $6m in total damages.
In the new filing, Moretti’s lawyers say Zwirner and the gallery played “a kind of ‘three card monte’ in which the numbered casts of the sculpture”—an edition of three, plus an artist’s proof—“were distributed to their buyers willy-nilly”.
